


forty-four sunsets

by beneathyourbravery



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Aliens, Alternate Universe - Space, Crack Treated Seriously, Domestic, Fluff, Love at First Sight, M/M, Parenthood, chenji are babies, jaemin is an alien prince, jeno is a babysitter, side markhyuck
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-17
Updated: 2020-07-17
Packaged: 2021-03-05 02:20:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,776
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25343110
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/beneathyourbravery/pseuds/beneathyourbravery
Summary: Galaxy F9-127 is far away from Earth — enough for humans not to know about its existence, the Solar System already a big enough enigma for them. Take Jaemin, a young alien prince from said galaxy sent to Earth with an information-gathering purpose, and Jeno Lee, a babysitter-turned-parent-turned-human companion, and the adventures that the Milky Way holds for them.Or: there’s a fire, a spaceship, love and a baby, not necessarily in that order.
Relationships: Lee Jeno/Na Jaemin
Comments: 20
Kudos: 101
Collections: NOMIN FAN WEEK





	forty-four sunsets

**Author's Note:**

> i wrote this in a spark of the moment and this au makes me so happy that i had to upload it without editing much so, warning for unbeta’d work that i’ll probably revisit and fix tomorrow
> 
> this is my first nct fic - although i’m working on another one rn! - and think it turned out pretty cute and fun, so i hope you enjoy!!!

_It doesn’t matter that you’re not here in person_

_As long as you’re here in my heart._

— Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, _The Little Prince_

Space is too vast for directions and coordinates, but there’s something that Jaemin has known ever since he was a kid; a knowledge his older brothers had shared with him one day while they’d laid upon yellow grass to observe green clouds, his hands still too small to try and cover the cotton-like moving things with his palms.

Planet Earth is located right on the Milky Way, orbit traced around a bright star earthlings would call the Sun, seven million light years away from their home. On Earth live humans, beings with two legs and two arms and a head like Jaemin and his brothers, and they tell him that humans have skins tinted with various pretty colours across the expanse of the planet, so very unlike themselves — the Na species, which poblate Planet Na, just shy to the south of the Central Star of his galaxy, all of them made out of the same shade of blue. 

Jaemin will admit, now that he’s no longer a kid but a recently turned adult, that Galaxy F9-127 is way more interesting than it had seemed before, when everything looked all the same to him all across the universe from their small and rapidly moving planet. He knows now that his species are not the only ones in their galaxy, other planets and beings and kingdoms only a spaceship trip away from home, and dark corners still awaiting to be explored.

Still, Jaemin’s always known that he wants to go to Earth. He’d told his mother about it when he’d been small enough to still fit in her lap, her throne the only place Jaemin could ever see her at, a good queen to her people and a less dedicated mother to her offspring. She’d just laughed and ruffled the indigo tufts of hair on his head, always careful of his small antennae, whirls already turning inside her skull as she stared at her son. 

She’d always been the most caring and attentive towards Jaemin, the youngest of the Na planet princes, his future far away from the throne and his head too adventurous for his own good.

“I guess that could be arranged when you’re older, Jaemin,” she’d said, pensative. “You could go on a mission there, and bring us back a lot of information so we can get to know humans better. I’ve heard they’re pretty interested in space, too, so they might’ve discovered things we don’t know yet.”

It hadn’t been one, but the way she’d made it sound like a sort of promise had had Jaemin squealing in delight, always ready to do his best, always an adventurous soul.

Which is how Jaemin ended up like this — human language engraved in the waves of his brain, human glamor casted upon him turning his skin light honey instead of sapphire, the basics and the quirks of human behaviour practised for endless hours during years upon years of training, and him sitting alone inside a spaceship built specifically for the purpose of his mission: travel to Earth, learn humans and entertain yourself, for there’s no greater responsibility awaiting from you at home, and bring back all the information you can when you return. 

The trip to Earth takes too much time and at the same time not enough for Jaemin to calm down his nerves. Piloting the spaceship comes naturally to him, a trained being since he was old enough to understand numbers and words, but the thought of finally landing a foot on Earth after a lifetime of fascination towards the planet is enough to have him feeling uneasy during the whole ride. He wonders, idly, if he’ll get to know any humans like he’d known other species in his galaxy, if anyone would like to be his friend. 

A human friend, he thinks with a smile, that’s something he would really like. Maybe they could tell him about those colours the books in his planet talked about, ones Jaemin is yet to see, because at home everything is blue and yellow and green and his eyes are continuously in search of beauty and change. The thought is nice enough that it stays in his mind for the rest of the trip, when he gets ready to go through the atmosphere, wishing to look like a shooting star — he’d read that humans liked to make wishes upon them. He would like a human making a wish upon him, too. He wonders if there’s lonely humans down there, anyone who’d like to be friends with him.

But as giddy as Jaemin is about landing on Earth, he is nothing if not one of the best trained beings in his planet, so it is really not his fault when the alarm goes off inside the small cabin right after he passes the last barrier the planet’s atmosphere holds against him, or when the spaceship engine suddenly stops working and he’s free-falling towards the ground. 

_So much for being a shooting star_ , Jaemin thinks bitterly, as he manages to push the emergency button that shoots him away from the rapidly falling vehicle, parachute making him fly away for a good while until he lands with an ungraceful fall. The starship crashes against an empty field in the distance, and then disappears because that’s what it’d been designed for, a burning mark on the dry grass the only evidence of its existence.

The first thing Jaemin notices is that there’s harsh gravel underneath the palms of his hands, and dark blue blood staining his pants right over his knees, the sting bringing tears to his eyes. He goes to stand up, feet swaying a little at the sudden change in gravity, Earth a planet where he doesn’t float if he jumps energetically or runs too fast, when he’s hit with a sudden wave of heat coming from his back that makes him turn around. 

Not too far from where he’s standing, a building is on fire, flames licking up the concrete structure and making glasses crash against the ground. Further away, not close enough to be seen yet, sirens are ringing, and Jaemin feels in his chest that he must help; he doesn’t know much about human fire, but his skin is pretty resistant against heat — Planet Na is awfully close to the Central Star —, and so he runs and runs until he gets to the burning place. It’s not until Jaemin is that close to where fire is eating everything away that he hears it: a loud cry, wild and defenceless, and his limbs are moving before he has time to think because his flight response is automatically deactivated the second he senses someone’s in danger. A dutiful prince, given to the people, raised to take care instead of rule.

The following moments are dark and confusing and Jaemin doesn’t really register what’s happening except for the fact that his hair catches a little bit on fire, but when he exists the crumbling structure and pats the flame down to death, there’s a small human being in his arms, body wrapped up in a blue blanket, red, tear stained chubby face cracking every time he punches out another heart-wrenching sob. 

Jaemin has studied human language and its different varieties for as long as he can remember, and so he knows that the little tag attached to the front of the small human’s overalls reads _Park Jisung_ in Korean. What he has not studied ever is what human babies mean when they cry, and so he just holds the baby close once he’s made sure he’s not hurt and then runs away with him before he can be seen, the dark of the night swallowing them both whole. 

***

Jaemin’s been assigned a house where he can live on Earth, his mother making sure her youngest son would not end up sleeping on the street, at least on the first destination of his trip.

“Excuse me, could you tell me if we are walking upon the Korean Peninsula?” Jaemin asks a kind-looking female human as he follows the directions from his communicator, suddenly not too sure of having landed in the correct place.

“Uh,” she seems lost, and Jaemin mirrors her expression, because the art of imitation is one he learnt from a young age and there’s nothing like replicating movements to blend in as one of them. “Yeah, we’re in South Korea. Is this, uh, for the TV or something? A hidden camera? Isn’t it too early in the morning for this?”

The Earth-time clock in his communicator flashes 5:06 AM and Jaemin does not know what TV is, and so he smiles, shrugs and thanks her profusely before continuing on his way. The human baby rests fast asleep against his chest, and Jaemin frowns as he drools all over the front of his nice human shirt. In the back of his mind, he makes note of searching what to feed a human of this tiny size, and he walks and walks until there’s almost no darkness in the sky and this galaxy’s central star — the Sun, he recalls with a smile — starts peeking from behind the mountains.

When he arrives to the house, he finds out that it is big enough to hold at least half of his brothers in there. Everything is neat and clean and Jaemin feels a sudden rush of affection towards whoever has prepared it for him, because exhaustion from his interstellar trip is starting to set in and the weight of the baby in his arms is making them feel almost numb. There’s a fridge in the kitchen stacked full of food, as well as several cupboards, and Jaemin finds the enormous sum of human money that’s been granted to him by the Na Planet Space Investigation Center for his Earthly investigative adventures right under the mattress in the bedroom upstairs. 

The scanner in his communicator tells him that Jisung is a human baby of seven Earth months of age, and Jaemin is quick to frown when he makes the conversion to Na Planet space time. Because sure, Jisung is tiny and cries a whole lot, but he is really, _really_ young and now Jaemin can’t just leave him because it’s clear he cannot survive on his own. 

He will have to think about what to do after he rests, Jaemin decides, because he’s too tired to figure out how to handle the situation right now. Jisung is still fast asleep on top of the bed, and so he takes off his dirty human clothes and showers quickly before laying next to him and falling asleep right away, too. 

Jaemin wakes up not even two hours later, to the ear shattering sound of Jisung crying his little lungs out next to him. He is loud enough to make the alien’s heart almost leap out of his chest, and he sits up quickly to hold him and try to rock him into calm, but Jisung Park will not budge. 

Yet again, Jaemin wishes he’d ever studied the language of baby cries, and then frowns because he himself is too young to even be taking care of a baby. Eventually, he discovers the public server of human information that he’d been taught about back home — the Internet, his teacher had called it, and so Mr. Internet tells Jaemin that hungry babies drink bottles of milk and that babies soil their diapers and need to be changed. 

And yeah, Jaemin definitely is too young to be taking care of someone who needs his diapers changed, but Jisung looks up at him adoringly when he finally manages to feed him a milk bottle and it feels like a huge accomplishment to Jaemin. 

Maybe Jisung can be his first human friend. He only needs to make sure he can grown up into an adult human before they can explore the world together.

(When Jisung finishes eating and gets a clean diaper on his tiny butt — Jaemin isn’t really sure why there are diapers in one of the kitchen cupboards, but he’s endlessly grateful for the fact that they are —, Jaemin sits down on the couch with him in his lap and gathers from the Internet every little piece of information he can get about seven months-old human babies, and then writes down a note of things he needs to buy for Jisung before preparing for the adventure that will be actually getting everything ready. 

Because fate exists, that Jaemin knows, for he’s finally in Earth after many years of waiting, and Jisung lost his parents right when Jaemin made it onto the human planet. And for this very reason, Jaemin will raise him until he grows healthily and becomes Jaemin’s human friend, no adventure sounding more exciting that this right now.

And so Jisung becomes the center of Jaemin’s life on Earth, and he still discovers all the colors the books in the Na Planet talked about, but it’s all overshadowed by the fact that this baby loves him, and everything else pales in comparison to the magnitude of his commitment to the tiny human being.)

***

There’s a big house right across from the one in which Jaemin and Jisung live, and Jaemin is observant by nature because blending in with humans sounds too similar to survival now that he’s self-claimed himself as Jisung’s dad. 

It’s by observing that he discovers that the people who live right across from them also have a human baby, albeit a little bigger than his Jisung, and that there’s a human boy looking similar to Jaemin’s own age that spends the days in the house and the nights riding away from the street on his bike. Jaemin sees him leading the waddling baby by the hand around their front yard, and playing tag with him, and teaching him how to ride a bike and pronounce new words, and so he copies him and tries to be like that to Jisung as well. 

(He fails miserably, for Jisung is much younger than the other kid, but in the end Jaemin gets him to move around in a small tricycle and to babble something that sounds close to _appa_ when he sees Jaemin — because Jaemin knows that's how humans in this part of the world are supposed to call their fathers —, and it feels like the biggest accomplishment of his entire life.)

The boy who spends his days with the kid in the other house now says hi to him when Jaemin crosses paths with him returning from the grocery store, Jisung sitting comfortably on his carrier, and the baby giggles while the other tiny human waves at him and Jaemin feels warmth in his chest. 

“I’m Jeno, by the way,” the boy tells Jaemin over his shoulder one day, when they’re already walking in opposite directions. 

“Jaemin,” he replies loudly, so he’ll hear, because Jaemin does not talk much to people who aren’t Jisung these days and he doesn’t want to miss the opportunity.

“I’ll see you around then, Jaemin,” Jeno waves, and Jaemin returns the gesture.

His chest still feels warm.

***

Jaemin takes Jisung to the beach when summer hits because he’s always wanted to see what Earth oceans look like — if they’re as green as the ones back in his planet, or if they hold pretty colors like the ones in the flowers growing up in his neighbor’s garden. 

The ocean turns out to be blue, so many shades of it that it reminds Jaemin of home, and for a flashing instant, he misses his real self — his sapphire skin and antennae, and Jaemin is silently thankful that his eyes pass as human for he likes to recognise himself when he looks in a mirror, these days. 

Jisung loves the water and the sand and they make a sandcastle together, and later when they go back home, Jaemin shows his baby his real skin and the boy is delighted. 

“Blue!” Jisung claims with a giggle, and pats down Jaemin’s arms in pure joy. 

The only thing that remains blue when he casts his human glamor back on is his hair, now a lighter shade of turquoise, and Jisung loves that too. 

***

Jaemin spends two good years learning everything there’s to know about human babies — what they eat and how they learn and how to bring them up nicely. He discovers, albeit a little bit late, that humans do not learn as fast as his own species do, but it’s all fine because Jisung grows up steadily and giggles a whole lot and Jaemin’s learnt that it is a good signal, too. 

Jaemin has studied the human language for decades in his planet, but having to blend in with people when he goes out for groceries or to grab cutesy clothes for Jisung proves that he’s not as fluent in it as he would like to think. 

(If people ask, he just says he grew up somewhere else — and it is not a lie, for Galaxy F9-127 is far, far away from Seoul.)

Still, Jaemin teaches Jisung how to speak Korean as well as he can, and that helps him get to know how humans grow up and how human feelings work, for he loves his baby more and more with every day that goes by.

(At night, when Jisung’s asleep, Jaemin watches human films — comedies and sci-fi and romantic ones, and tries to learn if the sensations bubbling inside himself are similar to the feelings the motions depict.

They are, because aliens have feelings, too, even if Jaemin’d never bothered to give a name to every one of them like humans do. The knowledge is rewarding.)

***

The kid who lives across from them grows up nicely, too, and the boy who takes care of him is there through every step of the process. Jaemin doesn’t think he’s his dad, for he walks away from the house every night, even if his own father had never stayed by Jaemin’s side. 

Jaemin doesn’t talk to him again after that first time on the street because he’s scared he’ll mess up and reveal himself and have Jisung taken away from him — survival is an instinct, not a choice.

***

Jaemin learns everything about human babies, and so there are two things he knows now: one, that he needs to bring the kid to kindergarten, and two, that he needs a legal advisor for human affairs because Jisung isn’t really his son and there might be a problem with that. 

(“We’ll send someone to help,” his contact in the Na Planet Space Investigation Center tells him through the communicator. “But you should be able to enroll him in a school right to the North of your base, before everything’s arranged” and so Jaemin complies and goes to sign Jisung up into said place.)

***

Jaemin had been aware that taking your child to school would require to leave him in the hands of the so-called teachers, but when the moment dawns onto him, he doesn’t find any rational argument in his alien brain that could lead him to believe that he must be separated from the kid for him to learn.

“Look, Mr. Na,” one of the two teachers in charge of Jisung’s class is telling him, blonde hair falling over honey skin — human skin is truly beautiful, Jaemin thinks again with a hum —. “I know that being away from your baby can be quite hard, specially the first time, but I promise you Renjun,” he motions towards the other teacher, “and I will take good care of him. He’s going to have so much fun,” the name tag attached to his pink apron reads Donghyuck, and Jaemin annotates that in his brain next to the address of this school and the exact state of Jisung’s clothes when he’s holding his hand under the building entrance right now.

“But why can’t I stay?” Jaemin asks again, cause he really doesn’t see a reason why he can’t have fun too. Renjun’s patience is starting to run thin. 

“Jaemin?” 

Jaemin does not recognise the voice calling his name, because it is not Jisung’s — the only human who talks to him. To his right, the boy who takes care of his neighbor kid walks up to him, smile wide on his face, and bows to him in greeting. 

Jaemin returns the gesture although he feels a little bit lost.

“Is it your first time bringing him here?” the boy asks, crouching down so he’s closer to Jisung’s eye line. “Hi, cutie! Wow, you’re all grown up now.”

He is not, Jaemin thinks bitterly. Jisung is delighted with the attention and giggles cutely, hugging Jaemin’s leg.

“Yes,” Jaemin remembers to respond to the question, eyes careful as he watches the boy interact with his son. “I don’t wanna leave him alone,” he adds in an afterthought, because he wants to make it clear.

“Oh, I feel you,” the boy laughs, turning to Donghyuck and Renjun then. “But these two, they’re really good with kids. My Chenle is inside already, but I’m sure he could come and walk with your kid inside, if you wanted to? Still, you should let him go. He’s gonna have fun.”

Chenle, Jaemin deducts, must be the kid who lives across from their home. Nothing bad seems to have happened to him lately, and so Jaemin relents and pats Jisung’s head carefully. 

“Okay,” he mumbles, picking Jisung up for a moment to kiss his small nose. “Be good, alright? I will be waiting for you right here, when it’s time for lunch.”

“Okay, appa,” Jisung grins and hugs him tight before Jaemin places him on the ground. “Please don’t go back to the stars!”

Donghyuck grabs his tiny hand and leads him inside, and Jaemin’s eyes fill with tears because it’s the first time he’s going to be apart from Jisung since he found him in the flames all that time ago. Renjun gives him a tight smile and Jaemin doesn’t have it in him to return it. 

“Babysitting really makes you attached to the kids, eh?” The boy who is still standing next to Jaemin chuckles, interrupting his very own emotional moment, and it makes him frown.

“I’m not a babysitter,” Jaemin tells him, not moving away from his spot right in front of the now closed door. 

“Oh,” the boy flushes, and Jaemin feels bad because he might’ve sounded mean. In his defense, he does not really talk to humans that are not either Jisung or cashiers. 

“Sorry,” Jaemin says, biting his bottom lip for a moment. “He’s my son.”

“Your son?” The human’s eyebrows shoot up towards his hairline, and Jaemin feels a little bit uneasy — this is not a story he’s ready to tell anyone. “How old are you?”

This is a question Jaemin can answer, and he smiles, gummy and big, as he finally turns to face the boy. 

“I just turned a hundred!” He says excitedly, because he spent his last birthday alone with Jisung and he really wants to be congratulated for making it this far in life. 

Human years are not the same as his own. Realisation dawns upon him too late, when the other boy’s already looking at him with wide eyes before bursting out in a fit of giggles. 

He is so cute, and the sight makes Jaemin’s chest feel as warm as their only previous encounter did and leads him to wonder if humans have a name for a feeling this nice.

“You’re so weird,” the boy giggles. “In a good way! You seem like you’re so much fun. I’m only twenty, sadly.”

“I’m… twenty, too,” Jaemin says, and it sounds dumb to his ears. He grimaces, and the boy nods his head. 

“You’re pretty young to be a dad,” he comments, but it doesn’t sound condescending — so different from the people Jaemin encountered when he went to buy diapers. “But you look like you’re a great one. I see you play with your kid all the time! You’re so cute.”

“You’re cute too,” Jaemin smiles, because he is, and the boy flushes red. “I don’t remember your name.”

“Jeno. Lee Jeno,” the boy introduces himself, and his cheeks are still pink. Jaemin finds that the color matches that of the flowers in the garden, and decides that it is his favorite color now. 

“Lee?” Jaemin perks at that, suddenly excited. Could it be…? “Like, from the Lee Species?”

Jeno does not know what he’s talking about, but he bursts out laughing like there’s nobody more endearing than Jaemin in the whole universe. (Jaemin hasn’t known him for long, but he wishes he could hold his hand and tell him about the galaxies he doesn’t know.)

“Just Jeno Lee,” he grins, and Jaemin returns the expression. 

“I’m Na Jaemin,” he supplies gently, sighing as he looks back to the door. “And my baby’s name is Jisung. I miss him already.”

“You’ll be fine,” Jeno assures him, smile never leaving his lips. “I’m Chenle’s babysitter - his parents are never home, so that’s why you’ve probably seen me around a lot.”

“I have,” Jaemin is no liar. “Do I go home now or do I wait for Jisung here?”

Jeno laughs again, and offers to walk back home with him, and when they arrive and have to part ways, they agree to go pick up their children together, too. 

***

“My daddy comes from the stars,” Jisung tells Chenle while they walk home, both kids holding hands. Jaemin holds Jisung’s right hand, and Jeno holds Chenle’s left one, and together they take up most of the pavement space in their street. Jaemin is thankful that Jeno hasn’t asked about what Jisung says — he doesn’t think he’s ready for revealing himself as an alien to him.

A couple of months have gone by, now, and Chenle and Jisung have grown to become very close friends despite their one-year age difference. Jaemin is glad that his baby has now a friend he can play with — children games become boring after playing them every day for two years straight.

“My daddy flies to the stars a lot! In a plane,” Chenle explains back to the younger, “that’s why I like Jenjen best, because he stays with me always.” 

“Chenle! Don’t say that,” Jeno chastises.

“But it’s true!” the kid whines. “Jenjen is my favorite human ever, and Jiji is the second.”

Jaemin has to stifle a laugh. Jeno doesn’t, and the sound he makes when he giggles warms the inside of Jaemin’s ribcage.

There are thirty-seven moons orbiting around the Na Planet, but as he watches Jeno Lee laugh, Jaemin finds that none of them compare to the beauty that the ones Jeno’s eyes form when he smiles hold.

“Hey,” Jeno says after a while, when they’re already entering their street, the kids running ahead of them. “I didn’t say it before but, you look really good today. I think pink really suits you.”

Jaemin has heard people say he’s handsome when he goes down to the shops, usually in hushed whispers coming from young girls, but he’s never blushed under a compliment until this very moment. He dyed his hair pink last night — the instructions in the dyeing kit box confusing and the bathroom at home stained everywhere —, because Jeno’s cheeks turn pink when Jaemin calls him cute and it really is Jaemin’s favorite human color. 

(He kind of misses seeing blue when he looks in the mirror, but he guesses there’ll be enough of it when — if he returns to the Na Planet, one day far from now.)

“Thank you,” Jaemin tells him, and the burning feeling in his cheeks does not go away. It is not unpleasant. “You look really good every day,” he adds, because telling the truth is important — he learnt that on a parental advising website.

“Oh my God,” Jeno laughs, and he’s blushing deeply now, too. Jaemin wants to touch the pink on his skin but doesn’t. “Hey, are you up to hanging out with Renjun and Hyuck later, at the café near the park? Chenle will be sad if Jisung doesn’t show up.”

Right. The teachers in charge of Jisung’s kindergarten class — Donghyuck and Renjun — end up being two of Jeno’s closest friends from school, and after how Jeno becomes Jaemin’s signature human companion (that’s what he tells his Na Planet Space Investigation Center contact when he asks), it’s only natural for them to invite him to hang out with them too.

Jaemin had been reluctant at first, because of course he couldn’t leave Jisung alone, but Jeno had reassured him that it’d be okay — he often spends weeks on end alone with Chenle, so bringing the other kid will actually turn out to be more help than hassle. That had settled it, because bringing Jisung up and helping him grow up into a nice human kid had made Jaemin forget the very reason why he’d gone to Earth in the first place — to meet humans and make friends and learn how to be one in the process. 

“Of course,” Jaemin smiles, and Jeno stares at his lips for a moment before returning the gesture. “Ring the bell when you’re ready and we can walk together?”

“Will do,” Jeno grins, and rests a hand on Jaemin’s arm. It burns through the cloth of his shirt — for once not stained with baby food — in the nicest of ways. “See you later, Jaem.”

“Bye, Jiji! Nana!” Chenle waves at them as Jeno crosses the street towards their house, and Jisung holds onto Jaemin’s leg as he waves back energetically.

Jaemin’s grown more familiarised with human feelings by now — through both academic studying and binge movie watching — to know that the flip his stomach does as he watches the scenery is a clear, undeniable sign of a truth: he likes Jeno Lee, and the realisation is not surprising at all.

***

Mark walks out of the bathroom on the exact right second Jaemin closes the front door, and it sets the three of them off into a screaming match. 

“Daddy!” Jisung cries loudly, hiding behind Jaemin’s legs. “Thief! It’s a thief!”

“I’m not a thief,” Mark frowns, and Jaemin fixes him a glare before crouching to pick Jisung up, rocking him into his arms.

“He’s not a thief, baby,” Jaemin coos, pointedly ignoring Mark’s pout. “It’s just daddy’s silly friend.”

“But he scared us,” Jisung sniffles pitifully, and as happy as Jaemin is to finally see a familiar face in this planet, he all but wants to strangle Mark. 

“That’s why you have to always knock on the door before entering somewhere, right Jisungie?” Jaemin says gently, but he’s staring right across the room to where Mark is now finished buttoning up his pants.

“Surprise…?” Mark trails and smiles, and it finally gets Jisung to calm down, sort of. 

Mark explains himself while Jaemin prepares something to eat for the three of them — less veggies than usual for Jisung, because he’s still a little affected from the crying fit Mark occasioned. 

“So,” Jaemin says cautiously, while Jisung colors yet another spaceship drawing on his coloring book. “You’re telling me that you’re my human legal advisor?”

“That’s what I just said?” Mark scoffs, popping a chip in his mouth. It tastes so good that it makes him hum in delight, grabbing a handful. Jaemin is not pleased.

“But you’re not human,” Jaemin trails, stirring the meat inside the pot. It took him a long time, but he’s finally managed to grasp the basics of human cooking. “What does the Lee Planet know that us Na’s don’t?”

“Dude, I studied a lot for this mission! I just wanted to help a fellow prince in need.”

Jaemin was not in need, but he just sighs and prepares the three dishes. Jisung eyes Mark suspiciously but the small amount of broccoli in his plate makes him forget about why he was upset in the first place.

Mark is the prince of the Lee Species, the Lee Planet the neighbouring one to Jaemin’s own. Unlike Jaemin, who has no royal obligations except serving his species as well as he can — like gathering human knowledge, for example —, Mark is the next in line for the throne. His father is still young and healthy, though, and so Mark dedicates his time to intergalactic diplomacy while he waits for his turn to rule. 

The Lee Planet, like Mark’s real skin, is mostly yellow, and it reminds him a little of Jeno Lee, for he shines as bright as his Sun — he’d probably belong in there, if he weren’t human. 

“So you studied these humans’ laws to help me,” Jaemin continues as he wipes a stain of sauce away from Jisung’s t-shirt. “You were never interested in the Earth, though.”

“Is Mark an alien too, daddy?” Jisung asks, and Jaemin frowns again. He should probably stop telling the truth to him all the time — it’s bound to cause him trouble sooner than later. 

“Go grab a toy to bring with us when we go out with Chenle, c’mon,” Jaemin ushers him instead of answering, and then he slumps back on his chair to rub at his face.

“He’s a cute human,” Mark comments through a mouthful of meat stew.

“Yeah,” Jaemin sighs, a nervous reflex threatening to make his eye twitch. “He’s my son. I just need a paper that says so.”

“I’ll have it ready in a human week,” Mark says solemnly, staring right back at him. “You won’t come back to Galaxy F9-127 with me though, right?”

Jaemin shakes his head, this decision one he set on stone years ago. 

“I can’t leave Jisung alone, and he’s too young for the trip to the Na Planet,” he says, too tired for how early in the day it is. “I’ll just… wait until he grows up and then we’ll see. It’s not like they need me up there, my brothers are probably taking good care of everything.”

“They are, but I miss you. You’re my best friend,” Mark smiles, and it makes Jaemin a little sad — he should probably make use of his communicator to talk to him more. 

“I know,” he pouts. “I’m sorry. You can stay here all the time you want.”

“Really?” Mark’s eyes open wide, now, and Jaemin almost regrets saying so. Mark looks down at his arms, human glamor hiding the yellow, and he grins. “Cool, cause I really like this look. Human skin is beautiful, bro.”

“Tell me about it,” Jaemin chuckles, and it’s all settled like that.

Introducing Mark ends up being harder than Jaemin had initially thought. 

“So is he like, your boyfriend or something?” Renjun asks Jaemin, pulling him aside mere minutes after they arrive. Jeno hadn’t shined as bright as usually while they walked together, and Jaemin felt awful for it.

“What? No!” He explains, grimacing at the implications. “He’s my best friend! He… came to give me a surprise.”

Renjun eyes him suspiciously, and then catches sight of Mark chatting Donghyuck up while Jeno settles Jisung and Chenle. 

“Good,” Renjun says, glaring at Jaemin. It makes him a little scared. “Because if you’ve been leading Jeno on, I swear I will-“

“Injun!” Chenle calls loudly, then, running towards his former teacher and grabbing his hand, Jisung following suit. “Come play with us! Let Nana and Jenjen talk!”

“Or maybe kiss!” Jisung says excitedly, as if he knew what he was talking about.

Renjun frowns, and Jaemin’s cheeks burn bright red. In the close distance, Jeno’s do too. 

“Sure,” Renjun flashes Chenle his kindest smile, and then turns to Jaemin with the most serious expression he’s ever seen in a human, vaguely gesturing in Jeno’s general direction. “I’m so tired, Jaemin. I’m so fucking tired. Do something already.”

Jaemin does not know what Renjun means, but Jeno laughs when he walks towards him and the conversation is wiped away from his mind instantly. 

“Kids, you know,” Jeno giggles sheepishly, and Jaemin stares at his beautiful face for a little too long, his cheeks bright pink again. Jaemin thinks himself a planet, and Jeno the center of his galaxy, the star he’ll follow until the end of his days.

“Jisung said we should kiss,” Jaemin says, because, well. At this point, Jeno had to know how honest he was, didn’t he? “And Mark isn’t my boyfriend. I think Renjun wanted me to tell you that.”

“Oh my God,” Jeno panics, and Jaemin smiles, because he’s so cute.

“You’re so cute,” he tells him so, and then reaches to hold his hand gently. “I would like to.”

“You would?” Jeno’s cheeks look like they’re burning — they’re warm when Jaemin touches them, and it feels like travelling to the Central Star and being consumed by its fire. 

“Of course,” Jaemin smiles, and he wonders if kissing will be as easy as the movies make it look. He’s worried about being bad at it for a second, but his train of thought gets interrupted when Renjun lets out a groan loud enough for everyone to hear.

“I’m so tired of kids and couples,” he cries out.

Jaemin does not know what Mark did during the ten minutes he was left alone with Donghyuck, but when he and Jeno turn towards them, Donghyuck has his hand on the back of Mark’s neck and their lips are clearly slotted together. Jeno gasps. Jisung and Chenle clap excitedly. Jaemin wants to throw Mark away into his stupid spaceship.

“What!” Jeno whines, and his hand squeezes Jaemin’s real and grounding. “I can’t believe Donghyuck got to kiss someone before I kissed you.”

“So you want to kiss me?” Jaemin grins, and Jeno smiles and elbows him on the ribs playfully.

“Ever since the first time I saw that blue hair of yours,” Jeno admits. “You’re really pretty, and an incredible father, and so weird and funny. I really like you, Jaemin.”

And Jaemin — Jaemin didn’t even had a name for the feeling flourishing in his chest whenever Jeno would smile at him at the start, but now, after spending so much time together with his human companion, he knows how to recognise it; full love blooming inside his heart and turning him a little less alien and more human, Jeno making Earth become more of a home than the Na Planet ever could.

“I really like you too, Jeno,” Jaemin says, and he finds that he badly wants to press their lips together, but he guesses there will be time for that later. “Let’s gather with everyone, and we can go back home later.”

Jeno smiles, and it all feels so easy — being human, and loving Jeno, and raising children and having friends.

“Lee Donghyuck,” the honey-like boy introduces himself, and Mark can’t quite hold the happiness bubbling in his throat at the words. 

“Lee?” Mark grins, looking around excitedly before asking in a hushed tone, “like, from the Lee Species?”

Donghyuck stares at him blankly for a second.

“No, from Seoul,” he says flatly, and Mark is endeared.

“Mark Lee,” he responds, then, and turns to look at the green trees surrounding them. “I never thought trees could look so much like water.”

“Are you dating Jaemin?” Donghyuck asks, unphased.

“What? No,” Mark grimaces. “He’s my best friend.”

“Great,” Donghyuck smiles, then, leads him by the hand to sit down on a table. “Tell me about yourself?”

Mark grins — he’s going to like this conversation.

(“See daddy, I knew uncle Mark is an alien too! He told Donghyuck before they kissed!” Jisung yells back over his shoulder later, when it’s only them and Jeno and Chenle walking home together, the two kids a step ahead of them. 

Mark blushes, Jeno’s eyebrows shoot up, and Jaemin feels frozen.

“An alien,” Jeno chuckles, but it’s confused, and Jaemin’s scared that he’s going to let go of their intertwined hands. He doesn’t. “What do you mean, Jisungie?”

Jisung smiles smugly, stopping in his tracks to turn around and face the adults — this is a sentence he’s said a million times.

“That he comes from the stars, like daddy does!”

Chenle giggles and they both return to their usual scheming, but Jaemin can feel his whole world crumbling around him.

“These kids,” Jeno shakes his head, like he doesn’t believe it, and Jaemin reckons he could let it slide and make things easier, but honesty is a virtue that he doesn’t want to let go.

“It’s true, Jeno,” Jaemin says, and Mark knows to walk a bit faster so he can catch up with the little ones, gives them a little bit of privacy in the open of their street. 

“What do you mean true?” Jeno furrows his eyebrows, and Jaemin wants to smooth the waves that form in his forehead.

“I do come from another place,” Jaemin tells him gently, like he believes the human brain capable of grasping such a truth. “I know it sounds incredible but, it’s the truth. I can show you later, if you want, and… you can hate me and run away and all that, you know.”

Sadness feels heavy on his heart, and Jaemin hates that he can’t be human too, if only to be an equal to Jeno and be able to feel his heartbeat under the pads of his fingers.

But Jeno — Jeno doesn’t hate him or run away or anything else. He just says,

“You might as well be the love of my life, Jaemin,” honest, like he really means it — he probably does — “I don’t care where you come from, even if you’re… an alien.” 

Jeno giggles, and Jaemin’s heart flutters and he’s in love — a feeling that goes across galaxies and leaves him feeling both breathless and invincible.

He shows Jeno his real self, later, when Mark’s sleeping with Jisung and Chenle in the guest room downstairs and there’s no one watching but him and the Moon. Jeno touches sapphire flesh, and then kisses it, and when their lips slot together Jaemin does not have to worry about seeming human because he feels whole as he is — eager and pliant under Jeno’s gentle hands, feeling and learning and so utterly enamoured he doesn’t think there’s any other being in the universe as happy as he is right now.)

***

Jaemin can’t stop crying and it’s making everyone a little bit concerned.

“Daddy,” Jisung pouts, tugging gently at his sleeve. “Daddy, c’mon! You have to stop crying now, it’s a happy day!”

It is. Jaemin is turning thirty humans years old today — a hundred and fifty in Na Planet space time years —, and there’s no apparent reason for him to be crying his heart out like this, except for the fact that his little baby is all grown up now — Jisung now thirteen and growing taller by the second, a kind and happy child — and he can’t help but feel emotional at the gift he’s given him.

Because it’d been difficult, getting Jisung to understand the magnitude of the reality surrounding Jaemin’s presence in his life, but he’d managed to grasp it a fairly young age; that his father wasn’t human nor his real father at all, but none of that had mattered, because Jaemin had never left his side ever since the flames almost took Jisung away and he’ll never stop being the first person Jisung ever loved on Earth.

The gift is nothing big — an old picture Jeno took of them on Jisung’s fourth birthday held in a cutesy alien-themed frame, a spaceship rubber keychain and tickets to go to the planetarium together _‘so you can feel closer to home, appa’_ —, but for Jaemin, who’s never felt more at home than he does in this house where he’s seen Jisung grow from a defenceless baby into a fierce teenager, it feels like a treasure. 

“I know, baby, it’s just,” Jaemin sniffles, and Donghyuck rolls his eyes at his dramatic antics. “I love you so much, you know? My first human friend.”

Mark coos, loud and annoying, and Renjun scoffs because for how much he loves Jaemin, he gets awfully sappy when Jisung is involved.

Jeno is recording everything on his camera, getting the ugliest close-ups of Jaemin’s snotty face, bright smile on his mouth and looking exactly like the love of Jaemin’s life. Beside him, Chenle is chewing through his third slice of cake, blue icing staining his nose.

“I love you too, _appa_ ,” Jisung smiles before Jaemin hugs him tight. “Thank you for coming down from the stars for me,” the boy whispers, and Jaemin starts crying again.

Later, when Mark has left with his hand in Donghyuck’s and Renjun gets a call from Yangyang, it’s only Chenle and Jeno and Jisung and Jaemin in the house, and Jaemin takes a moment to appreciate how it no longer feels like the space belongs only to him and his baby, how the boy who holds moons in his eyes and galaxies in his smile has made place for him in his home and his heart. 

Jisung drags Chenle to his room so they can play videogames before going to sleep, the Chinese boy’s parents away on a two-week business trip and him staying with Jeno at Jaemin’s house, and then they’re finally alone. 

“Happy one hundred and fifty birthday, baby,” Jeno says cutely, arms looped around Jaemin’s waist, nose rubbing against his own. Jaemin’s heart flutters just like it did ten years ago, utterly enamoured by him. “I love you so much.”

“I love you so much more, Jeno,” Jaemin whispers, pressing their lips together in a slow, loving kiss. “Forever, you know?”

“I know,” Jeno smiles in his mouth, eyelashes fanning against Jaemin’s cheek, breath warm on his lips. 

“I mean it,” Jaemin pushes, because this is old news and yet he’s finally made it official, today. His mother had mourned his decision a little, but he’d promised to visit the Na Planet with Jeno and Chenle and Jisung one day, if their engineers managed to build a spaceship that could make the trip a little more bearable for untrained humans. “I’m staying here forever, with Jisungie and you, if you’ll have me.”

Jeno pulls back for a second, catches his eyes with his gaze before lifting Jaemin up and spinning him around the room. He laughs loudly, and Jeno does too, and when they’re finally laying down on the kitchen floor kissing each other’s breath away, human glamor discarded, Jeno runs his fingers through Jaemin’s still pink hair and says,

“There’s nothing I’d love more, my precious shooting star.”

**Author's Note:**

> if you made it to here, thank you so so so much for reading and i hope you had a good time!
> 
> comments and kudos make me the happiest, and you can find me on [twt](https://twitter.com/hanniecuqui) <3


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